The world of marketing has come a long way over the last 20 years, particularly with the proliferation of the internet and online brand awareness efforts. In recent years marketers have tried to find new and better ways to get their brand message out to the masses via the internet, particularly during the holiday season when businesses increase their efforts exponentially in order to maximize profits before the year’s end.
But in 2014, a surprising number of marketers are making and already implementing plans to return to the basics of internet marketing.
In a recent survey, more than 90 percent of marketers across the United States and around the world said that they were planning to use email as the primary element of their 2014 holiday marketing campaigns. Forty percent of those plan to integrate email into their cross-channel campaigns which is surprising to some considering the popularity of social media and other internet marketing platforms.
The main reason for the substantial increase in email marketing campaigns this holiday season is that a survey taken earlier in the year found that more than 70 percent of consumers admit to being influenced by promotional emails that they receive that encourage them to take some sort of consumer-type action or make a buying decision of one kind or another.
While mobile marketing has certainly been an increasingly popular trend over the last few years, surveys show that less than 30 percent of mobile marketers worldwide have any plans to use SMS marketing this holiday.
But the key for marketers, experts say, is the use of eCoupons and groupons in their email marketing efforts. In North America, fully 40 percent of marketers plan to use eCoupons in their email campaigns this year compared to 31 percent worldwide.
Any way you slice it, email just might be making its way back into the heart of the marketer’s repertoire.